giveaway: back when you were easier to love04.26.2011

Happy Tuesday! I’ve responded to all the comments in the last two posts–many thanks for all your feedback. And that Logan event last week was crazy (over 1,000 people came!). I’m so grateful to all who came and to my fellow authors for including me in such an awesome event.

And…remember this book? This clever, fun, bittersweet, thoughtful novel that I posted about earlier this month?

Here is how you can win Back When You Were Easier to Love, written by the wonderful and lovely Emily Wing Smith:

You leave a comment with your favorite road trip song of all time (there is a fantastic road trip in Emily’s book and I won’t say any more for fear of being too spoilery). Also, please leave a way for me to contact you.

I will pick the winner at midnight, MST, on Emily’s release date (April 28th). That means you have less than two days to enter! (Since it’s kind of Wednesday night/Thursday morning…you know what I mean.)

Can’t wait to get all of your song suggestions, and CONGRATULATIONS again to Emily!!

I would agree with LIsa, because that song is beautiful and contagious and makes me want to jump on an airplane or a train.

I’d also have to say the Beatles. Something about them just screams road trip.

For a road trip BOOK, I’d suggest Through Painted Deserts, by Donald Miller.

I was on an airplane last summer, on my way to Jordan, and I pulled out Blue Like Jazz, also by Donald Miller. The beautiful, hipster girl with the laptop covered with stickers, big clunky camera, and a long hippy braid glanced over and saw what I was reading. Her face lit up in a smile and she leaned over the sleeping man in the middle seat to talk to me. She told me that Blue Like Jazz was one of her favorite books, that she loved Donald Miller’s writing, and that as soon as I got a chance I needed to buy Through Painted Deserts.

It’s funny because we returned from a road trip this week and two of our top songs, Tequila by the Champs (in the Sandlot) and Zanzibar by Billy Joel, aren’t songs I’d usually think of as favorites but on the road they really got our two little boys dancing in their seats like mad. It was a funny diversion from the hours of driving.

I’m not sure why but I love to listen to Gaelic Storm’s album, What’s the Rumpus?, when I take a road trip. I especially enjoy their song “Death Ride to Durango.” It’s just really fun music–upbeat and fun to play loud while driving with the windows down.

The Great Escape, by Boys Like Girls! This was my going-back-to-college song, and my graduating-from-college song, and my hopping-on-a-plane-to-travel-the-world song. There’s something so freeing about the lyrics; I can’t listen to it in public because I keep wanting to jump around! Plus, there’s nothing like a song that has the lyrics “and we’ll feel so alive.”

The first thing that popped into my head was the soundtrack “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat”. My whole family loves singing along to that album. It is just plain fun! And it is long…so it kills a lot of time!

For me the iconic road trip is a family vacation: five kids and two parents in the car heading to Lake Powell, and the Bert and Ernie Sesame Street Singalong. My mom gave us all a copy so we can play it with our family. There’s “On Top of Spaghetti” and “John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt.” When everyone fell asleep my dad would also play Paul Simon, Graceland, but Sesame Street always got plenty of airtime. And even after all that repetition I got a copy to play for my kids on our road trips, too.

Send Me on My Way by Rusted Root
My college roommate and I used to love to drive around for a break after long study hours. We drive an hour or so either down the highway or through the small towns near our college. This was our favorite song to listen to while we drove.

My favorite song right now about road trips is
Let’s Get Out of This Country by Camera Obscura
“Let’s hit the road, dear friend of mine
Wave goodbye to our thankless jobs
We’ll drive for miles, maybe never turn off
We’ll find a cathedral city
You can be handsome, I’ll be pretty”
Some other good songs about road trips are…
Holiday by Vampire Weekend
Road Trippin by Red Hot Chili Peppers
Two of Us by The Beatles
Car by Built To Spill

Wow..that is a tough question!! We have a stack of cds we bring on road trips. But my favorite songs are the upbeat dance tracks that get my husband dancing in his seat….some of our best road trips moments have been when we’ve acted silly and made it fun!! Yes, he can do the Sprinkler while driving!! Probably the best songs are something like Ice Ice Baby or You Can’t Touch This!

My family always switch up our road trip songs since I have two daughters and one son. My daughter’s favorite song to play is “Anywhere USA” by PYT (it was featured in the original Bring it On Movie). My son’s favorite song is Do you Remember by Jason Derulo.

Fingers Crossed I win! You know you want to give me this book, right? OK, favorite road trip song of all time is:
U2 – Where the streets have no name.
Best. Song. Ever.
Then, second choice:
Rascal Flatts – I’m Moving On.

Okay, mine is going to sound lame. I really had to think about this. All of my Road Trips in the last 8 years have involved a car full of kids. As I think back to when we are all singing and laughing together, the car favorite is International Harvester by Craig Morgan. The kids know all the lyrics and I could listen to them sign that over and over again. Its brings a smile to my face just thinking about it.

I personally love listening to My Terrible Friend and Pomplamoose. The Sea, The Sea by Peggy Sue and the Pirates is quite fantastic too. Also Rammenstein if you like to drive fast 😉 Not as good to sing along to though!

“Where the Streets Have No Name” by U2. I remember driving through the desert in Southern Utah, feeling a little disillusioned by the parched scenery outside my window, and then this song came on the radio. Next thing I knew I was dancing while driving, the whole car bouncing as I moved to the beat. The world opened up to me and I saw the beauty unfold beyond the glass of my windshield: the way the sunlight played on the gentle curves of desert floor, the subtle difference of brown and sage green colors painting the landscape. I heard the words of the song, “I want to tear down the walls that hold me inside.” The world now seemed full of endless treasures waiting for me to discover. Everything was possible and within my reach. Since then this song has been a favorite of mine, an anthem for life, and a MUST for every road trip!

“Any Place I Hang My Hat Is Home”, recorded by Audra MacDonald- went on a road trip during the winter break of freshman year of college with my roommate and one of our friends, and the CD player in the car got stuck on that song for a few hours. So, us being us, we belted along with it the entire time.. The song still makes me smile. 😀

My favourite road trip songs are “Take Me Home, Country Roads” and “Rocky Mountain High” by John Denver. They bring back so many memories of being a little kid in the back seat on many road trips from BC to Alberta, through the Rockies!

Oh, so hard to pick just one song! The *original* “Life is a Highway,” for sure (nothing against Rascal Flatts). And I’m a huge Bon Jovi fan, so most of their stuff works…I’m particularly fond of “Lost Highway” from a few years back.

Happy Mothers Day to all of the moms on the Earth! Tomorrow is Mothering Sunday and I know that eventhough it is celebrated on a different date depending on where you are located, I wanted to greet our mothers on this special day!

My favorite road trip song of all time is Don’t Stop Beleiving by Journey!!!!!! I LOVE THAT SONG! It is perfect for the road because it is full of energy that just build up and up just like your excitement for going someplace other than your home!